From the Acting Assistant Principal

School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support - WPBS

I am so excited to announce that South Melbourne Park Primary was one of ten schools in our South-East region accepted to be a School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) school for 2025.  SWPBS is a whole-school wellbeing framework which allows us to determine and teach the positive, pro-social behaviours we most want to see from everyone in our community: students, staff, and families.  We are busy working this term to determine our team who will support us next year and into the next School Strategic Plan as this framework takes 2-4 years to teach and embed into our community.   The impact of this evidence-based SWPBS framework should facilitate even calmer classrooms, more predictability for students and staff, and better learning outcomes for our students.  I will keep you apprised as we launch into this process.

Indigenous-inspired Garden

You will notice our barren ground next to our new flagpoles at the front of the school.  Our Year 3 team consulted with our Koorie Education Support Officer, Steph Briggs to determine the best approach to getting some Aboriginal support to create artwork to display in this space.  Then Year 3 teachers worked with the students to determine a theme of storytelling as the underpinning trend inspired by First Peoples’ culture of storytelling and how the students can find the storytellers within themselves.  Additionally, Year 3 students wrote acknowledgements to country as part of their experiences.  The teachers and students worked throughout term 3, and we are thrilled that the Year 1 team have recently joined forces with them to accompany the year 3 artwork with native plants.  We are hoping to unveil this formally toward the end of the term.

Prep/Year 1 eating

Another shift has been our Prep and Year 1 students being supported to eat out on the terrace on the top floor of the Discovery Building.  Teachers have worked with their students to focus on building connection while eating together in class circles outside.  Students also now pack up their rubbish, use a broom and dustpan for any dry spills, and a scrub brush and bucket for any wet spills.  This has resulted in tidier classrooms, better peer connection during eating time, and a glowing terrace.  I’m so proud of our youngest students who are maintaining such a clean terrace despite the food, and our local bird-life will continue to be disappointed.

Prep afternoon tea

Yesterday our Prep teachers and I met with several of our local kinders to assist us with a smooth transition for our incoming preps for 2025.  We are building relationships with some fabulous kinders in our community with the aim to keep continued contact to support our community as students transition from 4-year-old kindergarten into Prep.

Family Food Stall

On our last assembly day, a week ago, our Family Food Stall was a great success!  If you have non-perishable items at home, such as pasta, rice, canned goods, etc., we would be happy for any donations to be dropped off at the window at Breakfast Club in the mornings.

Regards,

Sam Smrekar Thompson

Acting Assistant Principal

P-2 Wellbeing and Welfare